Lake Superior as literary figure

Posted at 10:06 AM on June 2, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Does a character need to speak to have a presence?

When it comes to something as giant and powerful as Lake Superior, no.

Danielle Sosin's book "The Long-Shining Waters" revolves around Lake Superior. And while it never speaks, it is ever-present in the lives of three different women whose stories are spread out over 400 years.

Euan Kerr interviewed Sosin about her book while standing on the shores of Lake Superior, but the force of the winds off the lake were so strong they were forced to beat a retreat to a car.

Sosin actually moved to Duluth for the purpose of writing this book, thinking it would only take a year.... but it ended up taking eight.

"The premise that I ended up working with was that, the idea that Lake Superior is holding all of its history, literally as in the stuff that is down there, which there's a lot of," Sosin said. "But more importantly in a watery subconscious way, so that everything that has happened on or around the lake is held in the waters, which effects the people who live on its shores."

You can listen to the whole story by clicking on the link below:

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